We studied filamentous macroscopic algae growing in metal-rich stream water that leaked from a former uranium-mining district. These algae were encrusted with Fe-deposits that were associated with microbes, mainly Gallionella-related Fe-oxidizing bacteria, and extracellular polymeric substances. Algae with a lower number of chloroplasts often exhibited discontinuous series of precipitates, likely due to the intercalary growth of algae which allowed them to avoid detrimental encrustation.

We quantified carbon dioxide emissions from drained peat extraction sites in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom and also measured a range of greenhouse gases that are released to the atmosphere with the burning of peat. Our derived carbon dioxide emission factors were considerably lower than those derived by the IPCC, which has major implications for National Inventory reporting under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol.

Diatom and major components of the flux collected by two sediment traps in subantarctic and polar frontal zones were studied. Despite significant differences in the composition and magnitude of the flux, POC flux was similar between sites. The development of a group of bloom-forming diatoms during summer led to the formation of aggregates and enhanced POC export. Our results suggest that high biogenic silica accumulation rates should be interpreted as a proxy for iron-limited diatom assemblages.

By analysing the quantitative leaf-traits along extensive temperature and moisture gradients with generalized linear models, we found that metabolism-related traits are universally acclimated to environmental conditions, rather than being fixed within plant functional types. The results strongly support a move towards Dynamic Global Vegetation Models in which continuous, adaptive trait variation provides the fundamental mechanism for changes in ecosystem properties along environmental gradients.

Boreal coniferous trees emit plenty of volatile monoterpenes into the atmosphere. At our measurement site in Finland, we found a springtime relation between the high monoterpene emission from Scots pine stem and tree water relations. Hence, we suggest that the transient monoterpene burst may be a consequence of the spring recovery of the stem and that the dominant processes and environmental drivers triggering the monoterpene emissions are different between pine stems and foliage.

Hall et al. (2013) presented a synthesis of 969 nutrient tracer experiments and used a scaling method to test the hypothesis that nutrient demand is constant with increasing stream size. In this comment we present a reanalysis of a subset of the data used by Hall et al. (2013) and propose that their correlations between nutrient uptake lengths and specific discharge are inadvertently spurious. Therefore, the conclusions derived from such correlations are debatable.

We highlight the proxy potential of foraminiferal Mn/Ca determined by secondary ion mass spectrometry and flow-through inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy for recording changes in bottom-water oxygen conditions. Comparisons with Mn sediment bulk measurements from the same sediment core largely agree with the results. High foraminiferal Mn/Ca occurs in samples from times of high productivity export and corresponds with the benthic foraminiferal faunal composition.

We analyze simulations of the Pacific Ocean oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) from 11 Earth system model contributions to the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5, focusing on the mean state, climate change projections, and interannual variability. We analyse biases with respect to observations and consistency of results across simulations.

The absence of biogeographic barrier between seep and vent ecosystems in the Guaymas Basin offers the opportunity to assess the role of environmental conditions in the distribution of macrofaunal communities. Our results showed that community structure was primarily shaped by common abiotic factors. In addition, a high number of common species were shared, suggesting frequent connections between the two ecosystems. Overall, this study supports the hypothesis of a continuum among vents and seeps.

The impact of earthworms on the greenhouse gas emissions has received much attention recently. We studied the importance of the earthworm Lumbricus terrestris on the emissions in no-till arable soil, both in the field and in the laboratory. The results suggest that L. terrestris can markedly regulate the effects of cultivation practises on the global warming potential of arable soil and that high N2O emissions observed in no-till soils can partly be explained by its abundance.

We report the most comprehensive data set of surface seawater pCO2 and air-sea CO2 fluxes in the East China Sea (ECS) based on 24 surveys conducted in 2006-2011. We categorized the ECS into five different domains characterized by different physics and biogeochemistry to better characterize the seasonality of the pCO2 dynamics and to better constrain the CO2 flux. The annual average CO2 influx into the entire ECS shelf was 6.9+/-4.0 mmol m-2 d-1, about twice the global average in an ocean margin.

We present an innovative method using osmotic pumps and the fluorescent marker calcein to help identify where and when calcareous bottom-dwelling organisms mineralize in sediments. These organisms, and their geochemical signatures in their carbonate, are the ocean’s storytellers helping us understand past marine conditions. For many species, the timing and location of their calcite growth is not known. Knowing this will enable us to reconstruct past marine environments with greater accuracy.

We examined how N and P addition influenced soil microbial community composition and enzyme activities in subtropical China. The results showed that C and N cycling enzymes were more sensitive to nutrient additions than P cycling enzymes and Gram-positive bacteria were most closely related to soil nutrient cycling enzymes. Combined additions of N and P fertilizer are recommended to promote soil fertility and microbial activity in this kind of plantation.

We explore whether ocean model transport rates, in the form of a transport matrix, can be used to estimate remineralisation rates from dissolved nutrient concentrations and infer vertical fluxes of particulate organic carbon. Estimated remineralisation rates are significantly sensitive to uncertainty in the observations and the modelled circulation. The remineralisation of dissolved organic matter is an additional source of uncertainty when inferring vertical fluxes from remineralisation rates.

Remote sensing studies indicate that tropical forest and savanna can be alternative stable states maintained by a feedback between tree cover and fire. Veenendaal et al. (2015) attempted to refute this hypothesis with an extensive field study of the vegetation structure and soil conditions at forest–savanna transition zones. With a re-analysis of their data and a conceptual model, we show that in fact the results agree with the idea of forest–savanna bistability.